


Thirty Minutes

by roxashighwind



Series: Clara and Her Parasite [1]
Category: Venom (Movie 2018)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Future, F/M, Kid Fic, M/M, Major Illness, Multi, Polyamory, rated teen for hospitalized child
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-26
Updated: 2018-10-26
Packaged: 2019-08-07 19:56:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,787
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16414922
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/roxashighwind/pseuds/roxashighwind
Summary: She’s not born premature. That’s the one break they get when Anne has Clara.-This is the story about Anne and Dan's daughter, and how she gets a symbiote of her very own from her bonus parents, Eddie and Venom.





	Thirty Minutes

**Author's Note:**

> I got hit with this idea earlier this evening and couldn't stop myself from writing it. Thanks to my friend [Fox](http://spacefoxen.tumblr.com) for helping me pick the name for Anne and Dan's daughter! 
> 
> Working title was "Clara and Her Parasite" because I thought it was funny. Actual title taken from _30 Minutes_ by t.A.t.U.
> 
> I will _hopefully_ be updating this series semi-frequently (aiming for weekly) but we'll see how it goes!

She’s not born premature. That’s the one break they get when Anne has Clara. 

Eddie is there at the hospital, pacing the waiting room and chewing on the side of his thumb. Dan had come out to say that Clara was delivered safely, that Anne was resting, and then had promptly disappeared. He hadn’t even gotten to ask Dan if he could see them. 

**Love. You’re worried.**

_ Of course I am. _ Eddie continues to pace, keeps gnawing at his thumb. 

**If you are hungry,** Venom begins, trailing off and turning Eddie’s head to the nearby nurses station. 

He rolls his eyes and firmly tells Venom that they still can’t eat the nurses and that he’s not hungry, he’s anxious.

**Why?**

_ Because babies are complicated and Dan didn’t look happy when he came out here. _ Eddie’s trying not to worry because when he worries, Venom worries, and when Venom worries he gets bite-y. 

**We do not.**

“Bullshit.” It takes Eddie a second to realize he’s said it out loud, and he quickly gives an apologetic smile to the young couple he’s been sharing the waiting room with, tapping the bluetooth receiver in his ear. They seem to accept it, and he finally lets himself move over to the nurses station. 

He gives the nurse behind the counter his best, most charming smile. “I was wondering if you could tell me what’s going on with Anne Weying?” 

The nurse, who has seen him before and also saw him talking with Dan earlier, frowns. “I’m sorry, Eddie, I can’t tell you what’s going on. Patient confidentiality and all that.” 

She looks honestly apologetic, and Eddie knows he should leave her alone and just wait for Dan to come back out. “Can you at least tell me if Anne and the baby are alright?” He can feel Venom inside, ready to coalesce and scare the nurse (or worse) into telling them, and he almost wants to let them.

Her face goes kind of blank, that careful look that says she’s trying not to show him that anything is wrong. “I’m sorry,” she repeats. “Patient confidentiality does not allow me to discuss anything without the permission of the patient or their family.”

“ **_I’m their family_ ** ,” he insists, Venom’s voice mingling with his own and tiny tendrils sticking his hands to the counter. 

“If you can get Doctor Lewis to add you to the list,” she starts, training and experience kicking in, “then I’ll tell you what I know.” 

They growl, it comes from him and Venom, and Eddie forces his hand away from the counter to return to pacing the waiting room. 

\-- 

Three hours and a lot of surprisingly good hospital coffee later, Dan finally comes back out. “Anne’s fine,” he says immediately, eyeing the slick looking black necklace visible above the stretched out neck of Eddie’s shirt. “She’s resting.”

“And the baby?”

Dan runs a hand over his face. He looks exhausted. He opens his mouth, closes it, repeats.

**He’s sad.**

“Dan?” Eddie asks, steps closer to him. “What’s wrong? Did something happen?” He puts a hand on Dan’s upper arm, the other settling on the Venom necklace he’s been wearing for the last hour. He can feel a slight vibration - like a cat purring - under his hand: a way the symbiote had taken to giving comfort when they’re trying to look normal in public. He closes the little bit of distance between them when Dan’s chin wobbles. 

Dan takes the comfort Eddie’s offering, curling into Eddie’s body and grabbing fistfuls of the back of his shirt. “Clara’s not okay,” he whispers, voice choked. He clings to Eddie and doesn’t react when the symbiote-necklace slides tendrils against his own skin.

**Baby is unwell?** Their voice is borderline angry, broadcast to both humans. 

“Didn’t show up on any of the tests but…” Dan nods, continues to hold on to Eddie like a lifeline.

Eddie’s stomach drops. “What’s wrong with her? Clara, you said?” He doesn’t know what it means that Dan’s this wrung out but they’ve still named the baby. He pulls Dan close, tries to offer as much comfort as he can. 

He nods again. “Y-yeah. Clara Elise. She’s…” His voice breaks and the tears finally come again, wet on his cheeks and dripping onto Eddie’s shirt. “She’s so small. Fragile. We don’t think she has very long without a lot of help. Anne’s sleeping and she only knows a little of what’s going on.” 

**We can help, love.** Venom’s words are just for Eddie.  **We have a way.** They sound as desperate as Eddie is starting to feel. 

“What’s wrong?” Eddie asks again. 

The memory of charts and diagnoses filters from Dan to Eddie through Venom. It had taken almost a year to make that kind of transfer so smooth, and Eddie cradles the back of Dan’s head, fingers running through his hair because  _ holy shit _ what he sees is not good. He doesn’t even know that much medical stuff, but he knows enough that the fancy terms on the charts he sees hit him in the chest. 

**We can help** , they say again, loudly enough to startle Eddie and Dan from their feedback loop of sadness and distress.  **We have something to tell you** . They sound serious.

“V?” It’s simultaneous, Dan and Eddie asking the question as one. 

Memories of Sleeper, Venom and Eddie’s first child, flash through their minds.

Eddie frowns. “We’re not giving Sleeper to an infant, V. And even if that was an option, we don’t even know where Sleeper is.” 

A wave of something close to embarrassment hits them.  **We know that** , they reply.  **There is another option.**

_ Are you trying to say you’re pregnant again? _ Eddie asks silently.

**Did not want to steal Anne’s moment** . 

It’s so sincere, and sweet, that Dan hiccups a laugh and Eddie feels a swell of affection for the symbiote. 

“Doctor Lewis to the Nurses Station. Doctor Lewis to the Nurses Station.” The call comes over the intercom.

Dan pulls away fast, straightening up and putting on his ‘doctor face.’ He wipes at his eyes with one hand, claps the other on Eddie’s upper arm. “I’ll be back. And I’ll make sure to tell Amelia that you’re allowed to know what’s going on.” With a quick glance around, he presses close to Eddie again for a quick kiss. “Thank you, I’ll be back as soon as I can.” And then he’s gone.

_ V… When were you going to tell me we’ve got another baby symbiote coming? _

**Soon, Eddie. Did not want to overshadow Anne.** They project waves of apologetic feeling through Eddie, clinging to the skin over his collarbones.  **Baby is almost ready.**

Eddie resumes his pacing.  _ How long? _ he asks, fingers lightly tracing over the band of Venom still manifested around his neck. There’s a feeling like a shrug, and Eddie’s not sure if his own shoulders lifted with it.  _ Love… _

**Cannot say. Soon though.**

He nods and continues walking around the waiting area. If he concentrates, he thinks that maybe he can feel the new symbiote, the way he had sort of sensed Sleeper at the end. His stomach does little anxious flips, making him regret the amount of coffee he’s consumed. 

A nurse - not Amelia, the one he’d nearly threatened - comes to him almost fifteen minutes later. “Eddie Brock? Will you come with me?”

He’s started from Venom trying to calm him down, and nods quickly. “Of course. Has something changed? Are Anne and the baby still okay?” 

“I’ll let the doctor explain.” She motions for him to follow her and moves at a quick clip to get them back to Anne’s room. 

**We do not like how that sounds.**

_ Yeah. _ Eddie can feel Venom shifting around inside of him, feeding off of Eddie’s anxiety. “Thanks,” he tells the nurse when she shows him the proper room to enter. Dan is there, next to Anne’s bed. Anne looks like shit, and she’s been crying; he wants to rip his own heart out at the sight. His body moves without him telling it to, and a shiny black tendril reaches for Anne as soon as he’s close to the bed. 

**How bad?** they ask, and Eddie is surprised by Venom’s restraint; if it was Eddie in Anne’s position, the symbiote would have already went into diagnostic mode and tried to check him out. 

“Clara,” and Anne’s voice is rough, like she’s been sobbing but she’s trying to hold herself together. “She’s probably not going to make it. I… I can’t even  _ hold _ her.” She reaches for Venom’s tendril, lets it wrap around her hand and wrist. 

As Venom slides more of themself onto Anne, coating most of her forearm and starting up that cat-like purring vibration, Eddie feels like his heart is breaking. He looks between Anne and Dan. “It’s that bad?” It’s obviously that bad, but he has to ask anyway. 

“Clara has a genetic condition called osteogenesis imperfecta. It could be worse than it is, and I have no idea how it didn’t get diagnosed earlier.” Dan scrubs a hand over his face, attempting to keep in doctor mode to stop himself from breaking down. “It means that her bones are extremely fragile, and will suffer breaks very easily. The pediatrician thinks that it’s probably type three, which means she’s got a better chance than if it was type two, but it’s still not a happy outlook.” 

**We can fix it. Give us time.**

“V…” Anne’s voice is unsteady. “What do you mean?” 

**We have baby, too. Give our baby to your baby, save her.** Venom’s voice is strained, urgent.  **Soon. We can give our baby soon.**

“Love.” Eddie’s heart feels like it’s going to burst with how much he loves Venom. Anne takes his hand and Venom wraps around where they’re linked. “Are you sure?” 

Anne looks between them and Dan, almost in tears again. “Venom…” She grabs for Dan, squeezes Eddie and Venom’s hand. “Are you sure you want to do that? Everything with Sleeper…”

**Feels different this time.** All three humans can hear them this time.  **Baby wants baby. If you say yes.** They project a feeling that is different than the way Venom feels to them, similar but not quite the same. There’s a sense of consciousness in that feeling, but not as formed as Venom.  **Say yes?**

“How… How do we know that the baby won’t consume Clara the way you and the other symbiotes consume hosts?” Dan asks. His hope is pulsing through them all, because he’s seen how Venom has healed Eddie, has seen what symbiotes can do with hosts that match.

**No guarantee, but good chance for compatibility.**

Eddie bites the inside of his cheek, thinking and trying to assess the way Venom is feeling. He can feel Venom’s distress and thinks that most of it is in response to Anne and Dan’s own distress, but it’s also something else. “I think that Venom’s baby is more human than Sleeper,” he says slowly,  waiting to see if Venom will disagree. “And that the baby is more ready for a host than they want to let on.” The last is slightly accusatory.

They manage to sound apologetic, though only just.  **You are not wrong, Eddie.**

Anne shares another look with Dan, giving a tiny nod. Tears slip down her cheeks, and her hands tighten on the others’. “Do it. If it gives Clara a chance… V, please.” 

Dan nods, murmuring his agreement. “What do you need us to do?”

**We need Clara.**

“She’s in the NICU.” Dan gets a distant look in his eyes, thinking. “I think we can go see her, but there will be someone there watching.” 

“I want to be there.” Anne carefully sits up further, wincing as she moves. “Don’t give me those looks, this is my daughter.” 

They move closer to Anne to help her up. “Of course.” 

Dan carefully extracts his hand from Anne’s grip. “I’ll go make sure we can get in.” He disappears out of the room. 

Eddie and Venom help Anne into the wheelchair in the corner of the room. Eddie presses a kiss to the top of Anne’s head. “Things will work out,” he breathes, to assure himself as well as her.

\--

Things are a mess. The hospital staff watching the NICU don’t want to let all three (four) of them in at once, they barely even want to let Dan and Anne in, worried about how they’ll react to Clara’s declining condition. Anne levers herself out of the wheelchair, crying, to ask if they’re denying her the chance to see her daughter before something might happen. 

The staff relents, and they even let Eddie in. Everyone has to gown, glove, and mask up before they’re allowed into the room. They’re ushered in, taken to a bassinet on one side of the room. 

Venom stirs under Eddie’s skin, stretches and pushes up to just below the surface. Now Eddie can sense that other presence, their child, and tries to mentally greet them and share how much he loves them even though he hasn’t really met them yet. The new presence reaches out to him, their own amorphous greeting filtering through Venom to Eddie. 

**Baby is ready. Need Clara.**

“Can I hold her?” Anne asks. “Please. I know she’s fragile, but… I need to hold her.” 

They can see how the pediatric nurse’s heart goes out to them when he nods and steps up to the enclosed bassinet. “She’s been stable for the last hour, but there’s no guarantee that she won’t go downhill fast.” He winces at his own word choice, but carefully adjusts things until he can lift Clara. She’s hooked up to many things, tubes connecting her to the machines attached to the bassinet. The nurse directs Anne to lean back, and gently places Clara against her chest, arranging the tubes in the best way he can manage. 

Eddie sticks close to Anne in the wheelchair, choosing to stand. He feels Venom sliding away from him in the safe, out of view space between Eddie’s body and the back of the wheelchair. In his periphery he can see the inky blob moving around the chair, sliding up the wheel to work their way up the side of Anne’s gown. 

“I’ll keep an eye on the monitors,” Dan assures the nurse. It takes a minute to get the nurse to walk away, but as soon as he does, Dan steps closer to block the ease of viewing the group of them. “Quick,” he murmurs, and that’s all the ‘go ahead’ that Venom needs.

It happens fast. Black goo engulfs the baby in seconds, wrapping around her until all that they can see is a shiny goo ball with tubes and wires coming out. The monitors show a slight blip for a few seconds, but it’s not enough to set off any alarms. 

Eddie hates the empty feeling of Venom being gone from him, but it lasts less than a minute. Venom returns to him, sinking into his skin and wrapping firmly around his insides once more.  _ Is it done? _

**She is so broken.** They sound distressed.  **But she will be whole.**

Anne gasps, drawing attention back to her. Clara, who had been mostly limp against her chest, stretches, the last traces of dark slime sinking into her skin. Anne carefully touches Clara’s tiny, curled fist, and gasps again when the baby’s fingers flex and grab for her finger. “O-oh…” 

Venom preens inside of Eddie as they watch Clara’s eyes do the ‘I’m hosting a symbiote’ flash and clear.  **They are a good match,** they hum.  **We knew they would be.**

-

It’s startling how quickly her vitals improve. There’s a lot of crying, a lot of shaking of heads and going over of charts. It’s pronounced an extremely unfortunate misdiagnosis, and the head of the hospital speaks with them personally to make sure that everything is okay and ask if there’s anything that they would like to be done in response. 

Anne and Dan are just happy to be able to take Clara home a few days later. No, they’re not going to pursue legal action against the hospital for emotional damages. They have to sign forms to that effect, and they do so gladly. Everyone is exhausted, and Dan has to go back to work after only a few days at home with Anne and baby Clara, but Eddie and Venom are there to help. 

Being new parents is intense and exhausting. Being new parents with a baby that has a symbiote of her very own adds an extra level of terrifying and weird. Luckily there are four of them, and that’s almost enough to keep up.

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading! ♥ i'm on [tumbr](http://roxashighwind.tumblr.com/) if you wanna check it out.
> 
> there will absolutely be more in this universe.


End file.
